Learning from Sister Beck

What a special privilege I had on Friday and then Saturday morning to be taught and counseled by Sister Beck, the Relief Society General President. She was warm, humorous, down to earth and her message spoke to each person in the audience. As she began to speak she said, "This is your meeting and I have come to help you with those things that you have concerns or questions about." She asked the sisters to pose questions that they needed counsel or guidance with and then spent the time teaching, counseling, sharing scriptures, quotes from our recent conference and stories that answered those questions.

She talked of how our children are born with a mission call and when they are 19 they will receive their assignment. And to make our home an MTC right now. On Saturday she shared how she taught her children the scripture mastery scriptures at the breakfast table. I thought of how smart that is to have Articles of Faith, Scriptures or Pictures from the Gospel Art Scripture Kit with the stories on back to have my kids read instead of the cereal box, as they are aimlessly eating they can be learning!

One of the questions posed was how do we handle all of our responsibilities we are given as women and mothers. She talked about how women don’t just work one shift a day they work all 3 shifts - morning shift, swing shift and night shift. She emphasized how important it was to save our best for the swing shirt, that time of day when children come home from school and need our attention, husbands come home, dinner is held with the family and children are put to bed. That’s the most important time of the day, a time when a mothers influence is the greatest. Everyone is tired and hungry, they are vulnerable and thus teachable. My problem is I'm hungry and tired too. I need to do better on this one.

She talked of the Most Important Skill to develop is to Hear and Heed the voice of the Lord. Also to take care of the short term needs first and then focus on long term needs. No wonder FHE never works BEFORE dinner!

On Saturday she had a fantastic idea of buying an inexpensive copy of the Book of Mormon and writing questions in the front of it and then the answers you find in the back. I will start out reading with questions but I have a hard time remembering them. At any rate I LOVED this idea.

She spoke on how the Spirit magnifies our time and abilities. I thought how important and more efficient I can be if I ALWAYS have the Spirit with me.

The main topic on Saturday was counsels and how much they can accomplish. Satan doesn't like counseling. He likes the authoritarian rule. I know when I counsel with my YW presidency or even with Stephen on the kids, ideas and goals are formed. Counseling for a few minutes can save years of problems.

Anyway,it's getting late and I'm probably starting to ramble with my thoughts and notes from those great meetings. I'm grateful for them this weekend. I know these teachings from Sister Beck will make me a better mother, YW President, and disciple of Christ.